Consumer products such as cosmetics, personal care, and household products, as well as pharmaceutical and industrial products, employ ingredients that allow these products to form a film or coating on various substrates such as keratinous substrates (e.g., hair and skin), hard surfaces (e.g., wood and metal), and other non-keratinous substrates, (e.g., fabrics and articles). Those ingredients which help form a film or coating on the surface of a substrate may be chosen from a variety of raw materials such as waxes, polymers, resins and oils. At the same time, products which employ these ingredients are designed to impart certain desirable properties such as shine, water resistance, transfer resistance, scratch resistance, color and a glazed appearance to a surface. Furthermore, when the surface is a keratinous substrate such as hair or skin, these products are made to impart cosmetic benefits such as conditioning, smoothing, color, or style or shape to hair.
Nevertheless, consumers continuously seek new products with improved performance and therefore, challenges still exist today in terms of optimizing or enhancing the performance of these ingredients in various products. Moreover, the formulation of waxes, polymers, resins and oils in various galenic forms such as sprays, foams, emulsions, gels, mousses, pastes and sticks may pose a challenge since some of these ingredients may not be easily introduced and/or dispersed into these galenic forms. In addition, formulas using these ingredients have to remain stable over time.
In the area of hair care, hair styling products which contain one or more of polymers can be used to impart shape or style to the hair and/or to help maintain a particular hair style. The goals of many hair styling compositions include to hold or fix the hair in a particular shape, to impart or increase volume of the hair, and/or to smooth the hair, e.g. to decrease or eliminate the appearance of frizz. However, the type and/or amounts of such polymers can pose a challenge with respect to optimizing the benefits that can be obtained from the polymers themselves. Thus, there still exists a need to improve how ingredients such as, polymers, resins and oils can be formulated into various galenic forms, and at the same time, optimize the benefits derived from these ingredients and enhance the performance of other ingredients.
For example, waxes are highly desirable in cosmetics and personal care products as well as in household/industrial products in order to provide properties such as shine, smoothness, and slipperiness to various types of surfaces, as well as a protective coating against external factors such as exposure to water or moisture and physical rubbing. Waxes are traditionally employed in a paste or pomade but may not be easily formulated in a spray or foam product, particularly at a concentration that will be sufficient to impart the desirable attributes obtained from a wax ingredient. The type of wax may also affect the stability and dispersion of the wax particles in the formulation since wax particles could agglomerate. Certain waxes may also result in an undesirable rough texture and/or sticky and tacky feel of the product and/or to the treated substrate. In paste formulas, waxes are first melted and then blended with oils, plasticizers, clays and/or any other additives. In other words, formulating with waxes still poses a challenge with respect to optimizing the benefits that can be obtained from the wax or waxes themselves. Thus, there still exists a need to improve how ingredients such as waxes, polymers, resins and oils can be formulated into various galenic forms, and at the same time, optimize the benefits derived from these ingredients and enhance the performance of other ingredients.
Drawbacks associated with current products for styling the hair include that the product is often sticky or tacky and/or often produces a film that imparts a sticky or tacky feel, and styled hair that is stiff and/or “crunchy” (i.e. the film is hard and brittle resulting in a crunching feel or sound when the hair is touched), which is undesirable for most consumers. Current products for styling the hair typically include water soluble film-forming polymers. Depending on the chemical make-up of these polymers, they may be either soluble in water, or they may be water insoluble polymers which are made water soluble via various chemical modifications, such as neutralization. Solutions comprising these polymers tend to be viscous, i.e. as the concentration of the polymer increases, its viscosity builds up rapidly. Translated to styling applications, as the solvent evaporates, the polymer solution becomes thicker on the hair surface, resulting in a sticky or tacky film. These products also tend to exhibit problems with product spreadability, hair manageability, and low degree of humidity resistance which is particularly a problem in hot and humid countries.
It has now been discovered that by providing a composition comprising one or more latex polymers chosen from acrylate latex polymers and polyurethane latex polymers, and a wax dispersion comprising particles comprising at least one wax, a surfactant mixture, an oil gellant, and water, it is possible to form a film or coat on a substrate that has certain desirable properties, such as a clean, natural, and/or “invisible” feel, and a lack of stickiness as well as provides hair styling benefits such as a natural look, curling or straightening, and styling hold to hair. At the same time, it was surprisingly and unexpectedly found that the association of said wax dispersion with the one or more latex polymers resulted in a product that provided a soft and smooth feel to the touch. It was also surprisingly and unexpectedly discovered that the particles in the wax dispersion are heat-activated such that when heat is applied onto the hair coated with the composition of the present invention, the hair can be re-shaped or re-configured to the desired shape, without requiring a re-application of the composition.
Moreover, compositions according to embodiments of the disclosure may be prepared that deliver a surprisingly broad range of hair styling benefits, such as, for example, from low to high style-hold as well as desirablecurl-retention properties, for example by varying the weight ratio between both latex polymers, and/or between the latex polymers and the wax particles in the wax dispersion, with or without additives.